Summer Workshop Program 2023
This workshop is part of the POETRY FESTIVAL
Robert Frost famously wrote, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” That sounds great, but how exactly is “surprising” work actually created. This generative class will focus on how writers consciously shape a sense of expectations for the reader, expectations which might later be intensified or overthrown. We’ll write and workshop new poems throughout the week, and we’ll leave the session with several poems and a handful of new skills that can sustain us.
Biography
Matthew Olzmann is the author of Constellation Route, as well as two previous collections of poetry: Mezzanines (selected for the 2011 Kundiman Prize) and Contradictions in the Design. A recipient of fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Olzmann’s work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The Pushcart Prizes, Kenyon Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. He is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and also teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
